Income tax revenues are actually 40% HIGHER today than BEFORE the tax cuts of 2001 & 2003.

Obama says: "Asking the wealthiest among us to pay a little more will close the deficit."

THE FACTS.The current annual budget deficit is about $1.3 Trillion. (It was "only" about $400 Billion when Obama took office!)

People earning above $250,000 now pay about 50% of all inciome taxes collected ($550 billion)

Obama's "tax the rich" scheme will raise the rates for these people (mostly job creators!) from 36% - 39%.

Assuming that this does not further danage economic growth and decrease total revenues.....and assuming that spending will not increase in other areas, and assuming that the extra revenue (if there is any) will not be spent on something else, Obama's proposal would only reduce the deficit from 1.3 to about 1.25. Then what???

NEVER BELIEVE A GODDAMN THING THE REPUKES SAY ABOUT THE ECONOMY OR THE DEBT.

Pew Fiscal Analysis:“Between 2001 and 2011, about two-thirds (68 percent) of the $12.7 trillion growth in federal debt has been due to new legislation. 40% of this legislative growth was the result of tax cuts enacted after January 2001, and 60% resulted from spending increases.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: By themselves, in fact, the Bush tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will account for almost half of the $20 trillion in debt that, under current policies, the nation will owe by 2019. The stimulus law and financial rescues will account for less than 10 percent of the debt at that time.”

CBPP also projects the numbers forward into the next decade. Because the tax cuts continue to grow in size, but the stimulus and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan end, that further enlarges the role the tax cuts play in the expected deterioration of the budget.